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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Pokemon 11 Review

Alright! Because people actually have been asking me about this all weekend, it's time to finally sit down and watch and review Pokemon 11. Or maybe, I should finally start referring to it by its proper name....

Backstory: Holy moly! Can you believe that there have been 11 of these films? And I own them all on DVD. Whenever I hear about the latest one, I begin the countdown to its North American release so I can add it to my collection and have the whole franchise! Gotta catch em' all, after all. Plus, there was some interesting musings afoot about this film. Seems that the creators of the franchise are trying something new with the film. The prior film, The Rise of Darkrai, was the first in a trilogy, making this part II. How would they continue the story? Why would they bother? Let's find out together.

Plot: Our story begins with Ash, Pikachu, Brock and Dawn resting in a picturesque seaside city when, out of the woods, comes a timid little Shaymin. Shaymin is on a journey to a mythical flower garden, where she and the rest of their kind will change to their sky forms and fly off on an epic journey. But, this Shaymin had a little detour. Seems it was caught in the crossfire between Giratina and Dialga, and now the Giratina is hunting it down. Not long after, our heroes are sucked into Giratina's domain, the strange parallel world known as the Reverse World, where they meet a scientist named Newton, who has been studying the Reverse World. Newton explains that, thanks to Shaymin getting involved, Giratina is trapped in the Reverse World. But that's not all. Also mucking things up is Zero, Newton's one time assistant whose time in the Reverse World has now driven him mad. Zero now seeks to capture Giratina and conquer the Reverse World, destroying our world in the process! It's up to our heroes to save the world! That's a lot of exposition just for "big Pokemon fight lots."

What I Liked: Big Pokemon fight lots. And some very beautiful animated locations, for a Pokemon film.

What I Didn't Like: Far too much exposition for what we've come to expect from these films. And it's quite formulaic for the franchise.

Final Assessment: A respectable entry in the franchise.

3 Nibs

Bonus Features: None. Nada. Zilch. Zip.

Where Are We This Time?: Following the trend that started with the fifth movie, the location was based on a real life location. This time around, our heroes traveled to the city of Bergen, Norway and the Sognefjord

The End of Giratina and the Sky Warrior, but our heroes will return in: Arceus: To the Conquering of Space-Time